LOW-FREQUENCY OF TSG101 CC2 GENE ALTERATIONS IN INVASIVE HUMAN BREASTCANCERS/

Large intragenic deletions of the TSG101/CC2 gene were recently report ed in seven of 15 primary metastatic breast cancers. Although the numb er of samples was small, this observation suggested that TSG101/CC2 al terations were a major event in breast carcinogenesis. To study the fr equency of these deletions in invasive breast cancers we analysed 189 primary invasive breast tumours and 59 breast cancer metastases. We de tected intragenic rearrangements in only three samples (two primary tu mours and one metastasis). Northern blot analysis of 43 tumours withou t rearrangements failed to detect any abnormalities. Furthermore, we s tudied TSG101/CC2 in 11 human breast adenocarcinoma cell lines by Sout hern blot, RT-PCR and sequencing of the entire coding region of the ge ne, and detected no abnormalities. These results show that genetic alt eration of TSG101/CC2 is a rare event in breast cancer.